ISIS and Terrorism: It’s Worse Than You Think

In the wake of the recent terrorist events, I couldn’t help but write, or rather, rant about ISIS and terrorism in general.

And by recent, I mean all of the THREE HUNDRED AND NINETY ONE (391!), big and ‘small’, terrorist attacks in 2015, most of them by ISIS. Yeah, that’s more than one attack every day, in just 2015. But that’s more than 6 months ago. Surely, the world is getting better, right? Of course… Of course NOT!

If one terrorist attack per day is not hard enough to digest then take this. In 2016, up until the 12th of June, we have already seen SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY NINE (689) attacks, the latest one being in Orlando by, you guessed it, the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria). Now I am sorry for using uppercase to write these figures but the thing is, I just cannot stress them enough. If anything like this continues, we should probably witness almost thrice the number of attacks as 2015.

Welcome to How Big Are They and today we will be talking about terrorism, ISIS, Al Qaeda and most importantly, us.

Now, you may have noticed that the numbers I mentioned are correct until the 12th of June. It is 17th today, as I write this. How does that matter? It matters because when I collected the data, I thought to myself, “Surely, there is no way this data could be updated for a couple of days at least.” Well, I have never been more wrong! Turns out, as I refresh the Wikipedia page I linked above, another 38 attacks have taken place, in the span of 5 days, resulting in more than 140 deaths. In five days. What about the injured? I beg your forgiveness. I am too shocked to even look at the number of injuries, let alone calculate it. But rest assured, the scroll bar on that Wikipedia page is only getting thinner.

Now you may have a bigger heart and still might not be shocked, so just for you, here’s more. Just in January, this year, more than 1700 people lost their lives in almost 100 terrorist attacks, most of them by ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Boko Haram. Coming back to the present, more than 1100 people have died in more horrific ways than you can ever imagine just this month… And we are just about halfway through it.

Whatever the reason for terrorists to attack might be, political or religious, the only thing it ensures is the death of innocent people. People, who have nothing to do with politics, people with same political opinions, differing political opinions, people who have nothing to do with any religion, people of the same religion, people of different religions… it spares none!

Especially, ISIS, the most dangerous terror group in the world today, spares none.

In other words, if you happen to disagree with ISIS’ interpretation of Islam, you’re on their hit list. It doesn’t matter whether you live in the United States, the UK, France, India, Australia, Middle East or anywhere else. If you live on a planet called Earth, they will find you. If they ever find you, they will kill you, it’s as simple as that.

Source: Statista

This is evident from their videos of public beheadings and shootings. Heck, they even forced people to literally dig their own graves before being lined up, shot and pushed in. And, of course, they released this video online. If you haven’t watched it already, good for you, I recommend that you don’t!

But why do they release these videos online? Videos with top notch music, special effects, professional cuts… and even short documentaries of their camps and killings that even Christopher Nolan would be proud of. Well, the obvious answer is to entice fear. So, what is the not-so-obvious answer? Recruitment! Don’t get it? Let me explain.

ISIS, through their heinous videos, want to recruit people. Now you may wonder that who in their right mind would want to join an organization like this? And you are right! But the thing is… they aren’t looking for people “in their right mind”. For some young men, this is a powerful lure. It is all they have ever wanted.

Fawaz Gerges, Professor in the London School of Economics, explains this the best.

Actions speak louder than words. We look at it as horrible and evil. Of course, it is evil. But it is the part of its strategy: to convince young men and women, who are on the fringe, who are deluded, who have no purpose in life, who suffer from torn identities… come to us!

And it works. People from all over the world are joining ISIS faster than you may think. More than 50 recruitments every day to be precise. People from the Middle East, America, France, UK, Russia, Canada and many other countries see ISIS as an escape from the immense hardships of life. In fact, ISIS even recruits deaf people and kids. What about women? Well, the older women are sold off as sex slaves while young women are raped and/or forced to marry the fighters.

And what do all these new and old “employees” do? Simple: They kill. Tens of thousands of people have lost their lives due to ISIS and it doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. As a matter of fact, just this year, more than 460 people have been killed by ISIS while more than 1150 suffered injuries. In 2015, again, more than 1000 people were killed whereas just over 2000 people were injured.

ISIS, as it stands, is the most dangerous terror organization on the face of this planet.

Five Facts about ISIS

I’m sure that if you have a heart that has even an ounce of compassion, you’re feeling pretty hopeless. Humans are pathetic, aren’t they? Well, not all! It’s people like you and me who can bring the change this world needs so desperately. ISIS and all these terror groups may have a million people. But we are not just one or two. We are billions. And you know what the best part is? We are not just 7 billion people. We are not just a statistic. We are 7 billion voices. 7 billion bodies and souls. 7 billion hearts. 7 billion dreams. 7 billion people with a vision for a more humane society. And I have no doubt that once we rise above our petty disputes and fight as one, no power ever can stop us from making this world the most peaceful place to be in the entire universe.

At this moment, I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes, which goes like this.

The people who are crazy enough to think they can bring a change are the ones who do.

Steve Jobs

Let’s think we can do it and believe you me, we will!

That’s it from me today. Share this with your friends and let’s start an unbreakable chain of friendship, love and determination. A determination to beat these wankers!

As always, thank you for reading and I will catch you in the next one!

14 Comments

[…] young Roy Raymond realized one thing: Most men, including himself, would rather be in Iraq fighting ISIS than be in a women’s lingerie store. And in the days where no mobile phones and no internet […]

I am so sorry you have to face those b*st*rds every single day… as if being faced by terrorism just once isn’t bad enough. I cannot even imagine what people over there go through. Just know that, like all evil, they’ll be history too. 🙂

Oh god these stats, totally breaks my heart how humans can be so cruel to other humans! Reading all this makes me feel so unprotected, but again as you said, if all of us come together to fight this evil, ISIS or any other terrorist organizations will only be history!

I had to. The shooting in Orlando just made me want to write something, anything so you can say I was a bit more passionate about this than my other posts. But then again, it is very important to get ALL your stats right and opinions in order when you write about something that could be sensitive to many. Just hope I have done justice to it.